Spiritual-Note

Dasara also known as Vijaya Dashami, Navratri is one of the main festivals of the Indian culture. There are many popular stories behind the Dasara Festival but the main purpose is to celebrate the victory of good over bad.

Few of them are as follows

• Victory of Ram over the Ravana
• Victory of Godess Durga over Mahishasura
• End of Adnyatavasa for the Pandavas

This festival is celebrated in almost every part of India in many different ways. This festival is celebrated over the course of ten days starting from 1st day of month of Ashwin (Ashwin Shuddha Pratipada, per hindu calendar) to the 10th day of Ashwin (Dashami).

A verygood article which gives detailed information about this festival is available at www.panditjiusa.com.

Few days back Nag Panchami was celebrated so I thought I should add the information about this festival. Nag Panchami is an important all-India festival and is celebrated on the fifth day of the moonlit-fortnight in the month of Shravan (July /August). This is the time when serpents invariably come out of their holes that get inundated with rain-water to seek shelter in gardens and many times in houses. As such they pose a great danger to man. May be therefore, snakes are worshiped on this day. Right from the times when mankind started acquiring some sort of culture, Sun and Snake have been invoked with prayers and ritual worship in most of the countries. In India even before the Vedic times, the tradition of snake-worship was in vogue.

Here are some of the links which talk about this festival in detail.

1. http://www.bawarchi.com/festivals/nagpanchami.html
2. http://www.aryabhatt.com/fast_fair_festival/Festivals/Nag%20Panchami.htm